eee ASUS PC - Integrating into School Networks

[torledo]

in principal yes. it's a great Idea. I don't think your trying to find a problem for technology to solve, I see that the problem is clear - eeepc is a potentially valuable teaching resource because of its size and cost, but it needs to be modified because of its shortcomings.

I propose we have a long argument about what to call our new operating system. I vote eeEdugeekix ! we can then argue some more about whether to base it on debian,redhat etc.

Meanwhile, I'll have a go on eeeos when I get some time

All the talk of putting windows and other operating system changes makes me mad ....becuase the current os works wonderfully well for general purpose use. the eees biggest shortcoing are the obvious hardware issues that need to be addressed first and foremost. The hardware mods are obviously down to asus but they need to hear what the customers are saying about the ergonomic and hardware deficiencies as they are the changes that stick.

I've had the opportunity to try out multiple different types of laptops over the years, from large desktop replacements from sony, all the apple notebooks from the ibook G3, thinkpads, latitiudes, the vaio ultraportables - and a whole load of other laptops i'd rather forget.....

we all draw on our experiences from using laptops and ultraportables in assesing the pros and cons of the eee ergonomics and i know that ergonomics and hardware useability are THE biggest bugbears laptop users have - after all this is a general purpose machine not exclusive to the edugeek commmunnity.

i feel we are being a bit blinkered to it's areas of application and as a result neglecting the ergonomics for general purpose use - after all its not just a teaching aid it has to be able to accomplish portable browsing, document editing and all sorts for non-school use. For instance battery life has to be addressed whether a teacher uses it on a field trip for teaching or a home user wants to take it to the park to browse the internet via hsdpa...both users experience the hardware shortcomings acutely becuase the battery is flat within an hour. Trust me, users will not care whether they use ie or firefox, or oo or ms office...it's all about the hardware. and as long as the os and applications are quick to open and use and the price remains low people won't care what it's running.

...operating system and application issues are relatively straightforward to fix becuase you can allow users to tailor aspects of the OS to suit their needs. The hardware solutions are a case of one size fits all users - so the decisions made are much more crucial in some respects.

[SimpleSi]

- please flame/lambast/argue in another one

regards

Simon

[Jose]

I know its not linux but how about installinging Bartpe to the harddisk,
it can take up as little space as aroung 200-250 MB and we could all contribute plugins for it.
Quite a few programs like openoffice will probably already have plugins already made.

If you don't like Bartpe then you could try a nlite install.
I got my eee pc on Saturday, played with it for about 20 minutes before installing XP.

[Joanne]

i'll be getting my eeepc this month and i'll see if i can get it integrated into a CC3 network... BWA HAHAHAHA maybe I have gone mad!

[johnymac]

Iv'e had quite a few EEE pc proposals thrown at me and Iv'e knocked all back other than one. A primary school in Keighley have bought 100 and we have decided to take on the project of making them classroom ready our spec from the school is:

Internet
Printing
File access
RM Maths
Psuedo drive letters (ie o: for shared area)
Some early years software (mostly quite simple vis only stuff - flash etc.)

Budget is 50 GBP per device, quite a challenge I think you will agree!

We are not putting Windows on so it should be fun getting RM Maths to work. Tom Hudson will be leading the project and I am sure our results will get posted and available on our website in March/April time. As always any code/configurations we use will be fully documented and available for all to read! website: http://www.primaryt.co.uk


PS good luck with CC3

[wezer]

My school has recently bought a 100 ASUS eee pc's with linuxfor us to use (students). The problem is is that you cant get to your file area easily. I have a way to overcome this all you need is:
Rm Easylink server
Some basic knowledge of Javascript so that you can change the servers on which you would connect too.

i would upload the files but the form will not allow it so ill post the script and you will just have to put into a html file yourself please leave the credits at the bottom the same as i am trying to see how far i can get this.

// JavaScript Document
window.onload = load; // This initalizes the function load on stratup.
function fnNavigate(url)
{
//This asp file makes the address viewable as a folder
window.open("https://folders.ladymead.somerset.sch.uk/easylink/WebFolder.asp?url="+url,"_blank");
}

function load() {
var tgroup = prompt("What is the name of your tutour group without the your year at the start in capitals e.g NE1 AN?","");
var year = prompt("What year did you start at Ladymead e.g 2007?","");// when they started school
var username = prompt("What is your username?",""); // Asks user for username.
fnNavigate('https://folders.ladymead.somerset.sch.uk/easylink/wf.lcs-svr-003.s/' + year + '/' + tgroup + '/' + username);
return false;
}

//This script was created by Wesley Williams

[Daleus]

Primary school here, looking to eeepc every child from year 3 upwards, where the parents pay £x/week and its theirs, but they can (and are encouraged to) use them in school if they like.

We got one to play with from the 'EBICT' team at Bradford and it had their custom image installed.

connected to a windows share via smbmount just fine, connected to printers via the GUI, just fine.

However, this image was designed for children and they didn't tell me how to bring up the admin interface, so I managed to jimmy open the terminal via a shortcut.